Notes

Gloria Murray effectively uses figures of speech, imagery, and symbolism to convey the sterile, restricted quality of her mother’s house and the tenseness she feels when she is there. The mood is tense and constricted. She points out that “even the air knew/when to hold its breath,” and the walls “[stand] at attention.” These details also work symbolically, representing how the inhabitants are expected to behave and how they must keep their silence about any human feelings they might have. NUmber 5
NUMBER 7
This poem is packed with literary devices and imagery. Poe starts out with a strong, dismal image of ashen skies and dry leaves “withering and sere.” Consonance can be seen in the phrase “haunted woodland” with the repetition of the “d” sound. Alliteration is everywhere. One example is “my most immemorial year” with the repetition of the “m” sounds. Assonance is heard in the phrase, “lonesome October” and the repeated long “o” sound. Poe loves musical devices and uses them well in this poem to create a somber, mysterious mood. He also uses repetition of lines with minor but significant changes that emphasize the somber tone of the poem.
NUMBER 11
Both poems are written in free verse and use enjambment to enhance fluency and add emphasis. For example, Lowell runs the first three lines without end punctuation until the third line. Evans’ poem does not use any punctuation at all until the ellipsis at the end of the poem, implying that the feeling continues still. Both poets are mourning being apart from their loved one and trying to express their feelings about the separation. Evans uses apostrophe to question her absent love, while Lowell’s poem is more self-reflective. Both poems use metaphor or simile. Lowell’s “world beats dead/[l]ike a slackened drum,” and Evans claims that when her love left, “the sun/all light/and what few stars/there were” left too. Lowell ends her poem with an especially vivid metaphorical image of wounding herself “upon the sharp edges of the night,” while Evans closes with an ironic image of her love’s “confident/walk,” “crooked smile,” and the “rent money/in one pocket and/[her] heart in another.” The love appears to have had more than just a crooked smile! Lowell’s poem seems to indicate a temporary parting, while Evans’ love indicates a permanent parting.